THE ATTITUDE OF LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES TOWARDS VENEZUELA’S DUAL POWER SITUATION FROM 2019 TO 2022

PETROVIĆ Rajko (Research Associate, Institute of European Studies, Belgrade, Serbia), rajkopetrovic993@gmail.com
DUJIĆ Ivan (Research Fellow, Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade, Serbia), ivan@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

The research subject of this paper is the attitude of Latin American countries towards the dual power situation in Venezuela in the period between 2019 and 2022. This period was marked by the struggle for total control over the state between the legally elected president of the republic, Nicolás Maduro, and Juan Guaidó, the selfproclaimed president of the republic, supported by the so-called collective West. The key reason the author chose this topic as the research subject was the impact that the period of dual power left not only on relations within the Latin American macro-region but also on wider international relations. The starting hypothesis of the research is that the position taken by Latin American countries regarding the recognition of the legality and legitimacy of the selfproclaimed president Juan Guaidó was directly determined by their ruling ideologies, as the right-wing governments recognised Juan Guaidó as president, i.e., terminated diplomatic relations with Nicolás Maduro’s regime. The results of the research showed that the attitude of Latin American countries towards the dual government situation in Venezuela turned to a significant extent in favour of Nicolás Maduro after the so-called second pink wave, i.e., the coming of progressive political forces to power in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. Historical and case study methods, as well as comparative analysis, were used in this research.

Keywords: Venezuela; dual power; Nicolás Maduro; Juan Guaidó; Latin America.